The US Supreme Court announced a code of ethics Monday amid ethics scandals and public pressure. The new code claims to respond to the “misunderstanding that the Justices of Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.” It is made up of five canons and four pages [...]
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US Supreme Court declines to review solitary confinement inmate's exercise depravation challenge
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case involving the denial of exercise time to an inmate in solitary confinement. The case centers around Michael Johnson, who was incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois. Johnson, who suffers from severe mental health issues, including bipolar depression, severe depression and other diagnosed [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case challenging a federal law that prohibits individuals subject to a domestic violence court order from owning a gun. The case, US v. Rahimi, marks the first challenge to gun control measures since a case from last year imposed a new framework to assess [...]
US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in South Carolina racial gerrymander case
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in case involving racial gerrymandering claims against South Carolina’s congressional map. The case is an appeal from a three-judge panel decision in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina Columbia Division, which found that South Carolina’s Republican-led legislature’s design of that state’s First [...]
Gallup poll shows public opinion of US Supreme Court still at record low
A Gallup public opinion poll released Wednesday shows continued record low approval ratings for the Supreme Court of the United States. Gallup, an independent global analytics firm, releases frequent public opinion polls gauging Americans’ approval of the court and its justices. Tied with the record low from September 2022, only 40 percent of Americans approve [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee advances Supreme Court ethics reform bill
After a meeting Thursday morning, the US Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that proposes ethics reforms for the Supreme Court, which has recently faced a series of scandals involving Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito. Bill S 359—also known as the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act—passed out of the Democratic-controlled [...]
Justin Lindsay is a US National Correspondent for JURIST, and a rising 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. On Monday, July 10th, two top US Senate Democrats announced they would be pushing forward a bill meant to close perceived loopholes in the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act [...]
US Supreme Court finds in favor of web designer who refused to create websites for LGBTQ+ couples
The US Supreme Court ruled Friday in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that a Colorado-based web designer cannot be compelled to create wedding websites for LGBTQ+ couples, despite the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) which protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in public accommodations. The Court determined that forcing the designer to comply with CADA would violate [...]
US Supreme Court rules that law criminalizing encouragement of illegal immigration is constitutional
The US Supreme Court ruled Friday in US v. Hansen that 8 U.S.C. §1324(a)(1)(A)(iv), a federal law that criminalizes the encouragement of illegal immigration, does not violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, criticized the lower court ruling, which called the law “overbroad,” saying: Properly interpreted, [...]
US Supreme Court finds federal labor law does not automatically preempt state law claims
The US Supreme Court held Thursday that a local union must litigate a property damage dispute in state court, as opposed to appearing before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the court found that federal labor law, under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), did not preempt [...]